HEATHER LEIGHTONCounties with the largest growth are all located in the south and west, according to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates released Thursday.Texas' Harris (3), Collin (4), Tarrant (8) and Bexar (9) counties are all among the top ten American counties experiencing the greatest growth between 2017 and 2018, according to the new Census figures. From 2010 to 2018, Harris County led the country in growth with Tarrant (6), Bexar (7) and Dallas (8) counties following.Just over 55 percent of all American counties had a population increase from 2017 to 2018 with 56 percent of U.S. counties having a natural increase in population in 2018, which is down from last year. By metropolitan area, Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington had the largest growth with a gain of 131,767 residents in 2018, followed by Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz. with an increase of 96,268 and Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land in the third spot with an increase of 91,689 residents. The increases in population are attributed to migration, both domestic and international, and a natural increase in births outweighing deaths. Despite these gains, the state's explosive growth has slowed down every year since 2015, due to natural increase — the rate at which births outpace deaths — and international and domestic migration have declined. In 2015, Texas' population grew by almost 510,000 people in a single year, but in 2018, the population grew by almost 380,000.

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Heather LeightonHeather Leighton is the web and social media editor at Rice University's Kinder Institute for Urban Research, where she is responsible for web editing and being the voice of the institute on social media. Before joining the Kinder team, she was the social media editor at the Houston Chronicle. Leighton earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at Austin and returned to her hometown of Houston after graduating.heather.leighton@rice.edu